What are the biggest challenges and successes with Digital Asset Management?

What advice would like to give to DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM Professionals?

Full Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: [0:00] This is Another DAM Podca st about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today, I’m speaking with Jake Jaroch and
Ryan Messier. How are you?
Jake Jaroch: [0:12] Good. How you doing?
Henrik: [0:13] Good. How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
Jake: [0:16] I oversee our photography department, art studio, and I oversee
our Digital Asset Management System. The way I’m tied to Digital Asset
Management System is I do more of the long-term planning and the functionality
for the system. Ryan does more of the day-to-day, hands on operations support of the system.
Ryan Messier: [0:35] I handle the day-to-day operation for the DAM and support
the system from the admin side. I also handle requests from different
stakeholders, both internally and externally for the company. Any projects that
come across the table from an asset management standpoint is my responsibility
to take care of.
Henrik: [0:52] Why does an organization focused on motorcycles use a Digital
Asset Management System?
Jake: [0:56] Believe it or not, we have about 170,000 in assets in our system. We
have assets sent to us from other departments within the company, for instance,
our motor clothes which aim with our clothing line, our parts and accessories,
our retail environment group, marketing, communications, our HDM, which has
delved our archival, imagery and video. [1:21] So we’re actually getting fed a lot
of assets from the company and it allows us to reuse the assets in other areas of
the company, therefore saving us a lot of money.
Henrik: [1:36] What are the biggest successes and challenges with Digital Asset
Management?
Jake: [1:40] I think some of our bigger challenges is with the DAM system, for
extracting from the system search, our metadata, training our stakeholders how
to use the system. We have such a custom vocabulary here at Harley Davidson.
For instance, we have some of our miles are named Dyna, Touring, Softail, so
these are kind of unique names. For instance, Touring might mean something
else to somebody outside of this company. Therefore our search was very complicated.
It was hard to use a synonym dictionary.
Ryan: [2:15] The synonym dictionary that we had to establish, would optimize
our search and it was just difficult to establish that taxonomy because it is so
unique to a company.
Jake: [2:24] Then another challenge that we faced was selling our leadership on
actually investing money into the system. It’s very hard for leadership to see the
value in something that they are not getting a return on, or a hard number of
return on. It costs us a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of resources, the implications
of using assets without rights, all these things cost the company money.
[2:49] If we have all that information in the DAM system and we’re able to reuse
the assets, we’re able to save the company money. It was very difficult to sell
that to leadership.
Henrik: [2:59] From my understanding, it’s basically a soft cost savings. You’re
not selling things directly from the Digital Asset Management system. Is that
fair to say?
Jake: [3:07] Yes. That’s exactly right.
Henrik: [3:08] Good. It does save you time likely in search, provided it works
well, to save the amount of time it would take if there wasn’t a system in place to
find those 170 some thousand or however many assets you have til they understand
that point.
Jake: [3:21] Right. I’ve run some numbers. I said before that they’re soft numbers,
so it’s really hard to come up with the actual number. We save the company
hundreds of thousands of dollars every year by reusing assets and by
having the rights on all of our assets. [3:35] The successes of the DAM system
are pretty much the same thing. Exactly what I was saying was one of our most
difficult things, selling this, was actually probably one of our most biggest successes.
We were able to sell it to leadership, they bought into it, and they stuck
a lot of money into it.
Ryan: [3:50] The system itself is a great success. Our old system that we used
years ago was very difficult to navigate and very difficult to use. Users had a
hard time getting the assets that they actually needed. This new site has vastly
improved the general user-ship, and everybody has received it quite well. [4:09]
That was a huge project that Jake took on over the last three years. I came on
two years ago, and I’ve been running the day-to-day since then. That was a big
success basically, just from a company standpoint.
Henrik: [4:19] What advice would you like share with DAM professionals and
people who are aspiring to become DAM professional?
Jake: [4:24] I would tell them to run.
Henrik: [laughter] [4:27]
Jake: [4:28] Run while they can. No. I’m just kidding. It is a very difficult field to
be in though. You’re basically a pioneer. DAM has been around for a while, but
still it’s not perfect. [4:40] It’s a very difficult world to be in, and it feels like you’re
only one. As stupid as that may sound, it’s like nobody speaks your language.
It’s very difficult to find a friend in the DAM world, if you will.
Henrik: [4:53] I’ve heard that many times, honestly.
Jake: [4:56] You really need to be organized. You have to have thick skin to be
in this profession. I don’t want to turn anybody off by going down this path,
because it is very rewarding, but it is difficult. In a sense, it is kind of fun being a
pioneer and going down this path that most wouldn’t dare travel.
Henrik: [5:18] It’s definitely exciting, one way or another.
Ryan: [5:22] Playing off of that pioneer analogy, most people, when you tell
them that you’re a DAM Asset Manager or something along those lines, they
don’t know what you’re talking about. Even, for instance, my family really don’t
have an idea of what I do. But knowing that you accomplish such a grand accomplishment
for the company or whoever you work for.
Jake: [5:44] It is the truth. I wouldn’t change what I do in the DAM world. But
looking back at the last six years that I’ve been involved with the DAM here at
the company, it has been very challenging to break down those walls and those
barriers of bringing the DAM system to the company.
Henrik: [6:01] You’re implementing change management across the organization
of how they’re managing their people, processes, technology, and information.
I totally value your candor and honesty on those points. Thanks, guys.
Ryan: [6:11] Thank you.
Jake: [6:12] Thank you.
Henrik: [6:13] For more on this and other Digital Asset Management topics, log
onto AnotherDAMblog.com. Another DAM Podcast is available on Audioboo
and iTunes. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to email me
at AnotherDAMblog@gmail.com. Thanks again.

Can you explain the difference between semantics, taxonomy, ontology and metadata?

What advice would you like to share with DAM Professionals and people aspiring to become DAM Professionals?

Full Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: [0:00] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with Sarah Berndt. Sarah,
how are you?
Sarah Berndt: [0:09] Hi. Good afternoon, Henrik. I’m great, thank you.
Henrik: [0:11] Sarah, how are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
Sarah: [0:15] Well, I work on the ITAMS contract, specifically for an employer,
DB Consulting. My task is to provide a controlled vocabulary, or a taxonomy,
for the Johnson Space Center, accurately representing over 50 years in manned
space flight.
Henrik: [0:31] Can you explain the difference between semantics, taxonomy,
ontology, and metadata?
Sarah: [0:39] All of these are relative definitions, but within the semantics system
that I use, and within my own environment, the taxonomy, of course, is a hierarchical
system, a controlled vocabulary with a treelike structure. It’s agreed upon
overarching definitions for classes and concepts. [0:57] Ontology, then, is really
referring to the relationships between those classes and concepts, so we can
see that STS135 is related to a particular vehicle, it’s related to Launch Pad 39A,
it was crewed by these folks, it carried this payload. That type of information is
the ontology.
[1:21] Metadata, the most overused term of the century, is definitely relative, but
in my environment, I use a term “metadata library,” and what these are, specific
fields that have been set up to convey to the end-user, through the interface,
things like a Best Bet URL, a decided upon definition, an official definition, an
official image that might be relative to a specific mission patch or expedition,
for example.
[1:53] These components of the semantic system can be taken on whole and
conveyed to the end-user, or divided apart and plugged into different applications,
so that we have multiple uses throughout the organization.
Henrik de Gyor: [2:09] That makes sense, so you can have multiple metadata
fields.
Sarah: [2:12] I think that is absolutely essential to decide on what your definitions
are right from the get-go. You need to decide, is your ontology actually
metadata to your taxonomy, or is it the term “metadata” that’s going to be
making the big influence? All of these things definitely need to be defined,
and shouldn’t be assumed or taken for granted. [2:36] When you start from the
ground up, sometimes you wish you’d had known what to do first, but it’s definitely
better or more advisable to plan the structure from the beginning. The
taxonomy, the basic structure, to have that from the beginning and to build the
ontology from the point and the term metadata from that point.
[2:57] The structure then provides a foundation for all that unstructured content
and data that you’re actually, that’s your angle that you’re actually trying to
represent.
Henrik de Gyor: [3:09] And hopefully find again.
Sarah: [3:11] Yes, again, the end goal. We want to find it. We want to reuse it.
We want to improve the end user search experience.
Henrik de Gyor: [3:19] That totally makes sense. What advice would you
like to share with DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM
professionals?
Sarah: [3:24] It’s a good thing. [laughter]
Sarah: [3:28] No, seriously, I would say don’t pigeonhole yourself. My title is JSC
taxonomist. I’m a contractor. JSC taxonomist, it’s great to have a title, but if that
were all I had to do, that would be quite a pigeonhole. [3:45] To really reach out
and take a look at the interoperability between your systems, between your file
formats, between your duties, you can be one day searching for more subject
matter expert participation, and the next day reporting off to management
about the ROI , and the next day, trying to win funding for a cost benefit analysis
study.
[4:08] There are an endless array of hats that can be worn. I would say definitely
be careful about how you pigeonhole yourself and take advantage of the multiple
definitions that can occur in the workplace.
Henrik de Gyor: [4:24] Great point. Thank you so much, Sarah. For
more on Digital Asset Management, log onto AnotherDAMblog.com.
Another DAM Podcast is available on Audioboo, Bluberry, iTunes and the
Tech Podcast Network. Thanks again.

You recently wrote a book called The Accidental Taxonomist. What inspired you to write this book?

What advice would you give to DAM Professionals or people aspiring to be a DAM Professional?

Full Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with Heather Hedden.
Heather, how are you?
Heather Hedden: [0:09] Fine, thanks. Thanks for inviting me.
Henrik: [0:12] Heather, how are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
Heather: [0:15] Actually I’m a taxonomist. That’s closely related. I create taxonomies
which are usually structured sets of terms used for metadata to tag or
classify content item. The content can be digital assets or text documents. I’m
involved in more than just Digital Asset Management as I see it. [0:36] I originally
got into the field from a background of indexing with a company that has now
become Cengage Learning, indexes, reference materials for libraries, magazine
and newspaper articles, pamphlets, maps, charts, and images too. I’ve worked
as a taxonomist in both full-time positions and as a consultant or contractor. I’m
in between jobs at the moment.
[1:03] My most recent job was as the taxonomy manager in a wind energy company
based in Boston. There I developed a better nested folder for the hierarchical
classification of content to better support browsing. I also developed
taxonomies with numerous synonyms for auto classification of content to better
support search.
[1:24] A third taxonomy project included metadata for manually tagging content
was also in the plans. Although many documents there were text files, they also
had CAD drawings, topographical maps, PowerPoint presentations, and image
files such as many photos of wind farm locations and wind turbines.
[1:46] The taxonomy covered lots of terms dealing with all these different documents,
technical, legal, financial, covering all areas of the business. I’ve also
been involved in developing policies or guidelines for tagging or classifying
content with a taxonomy which is an important component of taxonomy work.
Henrik: [2:07] Heather, you recently wrote a book called “The Accidental
Taxonomist.” What inspired you to write this book?
Heather: [2:12] I’m glad you asked. I also teach a continuing education workshop.
It’s a five week workshop through Simmons College Graduate School
of Library and Information Science. It’s an introduction to taxonomy. I’ve been
doing that for a couple of years. [2:27] I got an inquiry if I would teach a second,
more advanced class. I just got to thinking about how much work that would be
because it’s ongoing every other month or something. Since I had accumulated
some other written materials and giving presentations, I thought maybe it would
better to put this all into a book that would serve both those at an introductory
level and at a more advanced level if you had a lot of material together.
[2:54] As a backup I had also been doing kind of freelance side work back to the
book indexing, writing indexes to nonfiction books. I’ve been reading a lot of
different nonfiction books, some of them professional books. I thought, “Well,
maybe I could write a book too.”
[3:11] I consider my background pretty comprehensive in both that I created
taxonomies used by human manual indexers, taggers, and those for auto classifications.
I’ve also created taxonomies for more commercial, published content
and those that are for internal enterprise content.
[3:34] With that kind of broad background I felt pretty qualified to write a book
on this. Some people have written book that are more narrow just for enterprise
taxonomy. When I looked around, there really wasn’t that much out there just on
taxonomy today.
[3:52] There’s another book that’s more on knowledge management or some
that are focused on controlled vocabularies more for wide learning focus areas.
It was a need that needed filling.
Henrik: [4:05] Heather, is there a website where you can get more information
about this?
Heather: [4:09] Oh yes. It’s www.accidentaltaxonomist.com which has a lot of
information about the book, the table of contents, the index, the introduction,
forward. It also has all the websites mentioned throughout the book, the URLs,
and they are hyperlinked. You can actually get a lot of information that I have in
my book without reading it, although I hope you do. Readers can go do that.
Henrik: [4:41] What advice would you give to DAM professionals or people aspiring
to be a DAM professional?
Heather: [4:47] Considering I’m a little bit on the sidelines of the DAM profession
myself being a taxonomist, I do see similarities there and I recommend this
for people going into taxonomy as well or other fields such as content management.
[5:01] It involves having more of a broader skill set and experience,
so combining a DAM background with, perhaps, taxonomy management or
content management experience or also indexing background that I have had
or experience with maybe search technologies or more of a technology background
and perhaps a subject area expertise, so something to some specialty
area to distinguish one’s self.
[5:38] Also, I think people should be open to any industry. You might think of
maybe traditional media based industries, but all kinds of companies, all kinds
of industries now have a growing core list of different types of assets. I never
thought I’d end up in the wind energy industry. Keep your eyes open to anything
and network a lot.
Henrik: [6:04] Great idea. Thanks, Heather.
Heather: [6:07] OK , you’re welcome. It was nice to talk to you.
Henrik: [6:10] No problem. For more on Digital Asset Management, log ontoAnotherDAMblog.com. Thanks again.

What advice would you like to give to DAM Professionals and people aspiring to become DAM Professionals?

Full Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: [0:02] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today, I’m speaking with Seth Earley. Seth,
how are you?
Seth Earley: [0:09] I am terrific. Thank you for having me.
Henrik: [0:11] Great. Seth, how are you involved with Digital Asset
Management?
Seth: [0:15] Well, I’ll tell you. We have been doing work with Digital Asset
Management for probably the entire 15 years that I’ve been doing this kind of
work. I’ve been involved in content management, in document management, in
knowledge management for that period of time. Throughout the entire career,
we’ve always had to deal with nontextual assets. We’ve always had to deal with
some rich media. [0:40] I remember at the beginning when we were doing work
with Lotus Notes. The first time you could drop an image into a rich text field, I
was like, “Wow. This is so amazingly cool. I cannot believe you can drop a picture
into a rich text field.” Ever since then we’ve been dealing with digital assets
and Digital Asset Management Systems.
Henrik: [1:02] Excellent. Seth, how does taxonomy relate to Digital Asset
Management?
Seth: [1:13] You can infer something about text assets. You can derive something.
You can do text mining. There are is-ness and about-ness inherently
within the content. [1:20] When you build an index, when you’re doing search,
you’re searching text assets by inferring something about the nature of the
content. You can create a forward index by looking at the words in a document.
You invert that index, which gives you the pointers to specific documents
based on the words. And then, that’s derived metadata about the text, about
the document.
[1:43] You don’t have that ability to do that with any kind of Digital Asset
Management, with digital assets, with rich media, with images. There’s no inherent
is-ness or about-ness, so, of course, we have to use metadata.
[1:56] The way we look at metadata and taxonomy, taxonomy is really the way
of beginning to organize your metadata. We don’t look at taxonomy in a very
narrow sense of navigation. We look at taxonomy from a perspective of classification
and overall information architecture.
[2:15] When we start looking at taxonomy, we want to begin thinking about the
types of fields and the ways that we can start to tag the assets with metadata.
Then we want to populate those fields with reference data, with the drop downs,
with the controlled vocabularies, with the lists and attributes.
[2:36] Taxonomies are considered to be hierarchical in nature. We can certainly
have hierarchical lists of controlled values, but there’s all sorts of different ways
of looking at information architecture that references taxonomies. Taxonomies
are the overall organizing principles around your metadata fields.
[2:58] Of course, whenever you think about metadata, if you have a large list of
attributes or a large list of values, you have to break those up for human consumption.
We can only deal with fairly short lists, maybe 5, 10, or maybe 15
items. If you start to get into lists that are 100 terms long or 200 terms or 500
terms, how do you deal with that? Well, you have to break it up. That’s where
you have to use hierarchies.
[3:25] You can even think of metadata fields as the top-level terms of your hierarchy.
A doc type will be a top-level term of a hierarchy. Maybe an asset type
would be a top-level term, or maybe a channel, a region, a language, or any of
those other types of attributes. Those can all be considered top-level terms of
the taxonomy. Really, all of the metadata is an expression of the taxonomy.
Henrik: [4:01] Makes complete sense. Seth, what advice would you give to DAM
professionals or people aspiring to be DAM professionals?
Seth: [4:12] Well, I think the best advice that I can give would be to get experience,
even with projects that are nonprofit organizations or organizations
that don’t have a lot of money, so that you can build your skills. Get a broad
understanding of information architecture, including things like wire frame development,
metadata schemas, and taxonomy development. [4:41] Look at the
semantics of your structures, and try to understand a little bit about library
science. Library science is the core foundation for all of these organizing principles.
I heard someone recently say that a Digital Asset Management system is a
Metadata Management System that does fancy things. I totally agree with that.
[5:04] You really do need to understand metadata structures and metadata schemas,
and understand things like Dublin Core. Look at the different ways that you
can organize those assets using various types of technologies. Look at how the
various technologies leverage organizing principles and leverage information
architecture.
[5:28] I would get some very practical experience, though. Find a nonprofit organization
that doesn’t have a lot of resources, that would like to get your elbow
grease and your hard work to help them fix a system or help them organize their
assets. That’s a great way to build your resume.
[5:50] If you’re more experienced, definitely broaden your expertise by looking
at some training in library science and metadata schemas. Have a good, broad
understanding of the technologies.
Henrik: [6:04] Great idea. Well, thanks, Seth.
Seth: [6:07] Thank you.
Henrik: [6:08] For more on Digital Asset Management, log on toAnotherDAMblog.com. Thanks again.